The Zone

In a sporting contest one must get "in-the-zone" to succeed. In basketball for example many of my teammates would have their own strange way of preparing for the game. Some would stroll into the locker room with giant earphones on. Ironically, they often covered only one ear. Their pants in a similar fashion often covered half of what they were made for. But this is what got them going. For them this made the difference between a good game and a bad one.

Let's examine Michael Jordan for example. You could tell by taking one look into his eyes that he was ready to play-- ready to do anything to win. He carefully honed his skills each practice so when it came to game time he was all in.

I do not want to compare missionary work with a silly thing like basketball but I am forced to see the parallel. It is so important to get "in-the-zone". We study every morning and prayerfully begin each day. If we don't we risk missing the basket, dropping the fly ball, or whatever other cliché comment you would like to add here. You have to be sharp as a missionary or life will pass you by. Sometimes you get knocked off your "mojo". But you get back up and try again.

You fight the good fight of faith!

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed"! (D&C 123:17).

It's the fourth quarter and it is time to step it up.

 

Eternal life is knowing God, and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). How can we know Him if we don't at least taste what He did. He grew up for 30 years living the Law of Moses. That sounds like 30 years too many for me. But He understood the importance of the Aaronic priesthood in preparing the way for a richer way of life. Mission rules give us a taste of that law. It keeps us in the way. And by no means did He abandon His heritage after the law was fulfilled. He understood the importance of the lower law with the higher law. He made sure he kept Aaronic priesthood ordinances such as the sacrament to cleanse His children continually. But the higher law demands more from us. It demands our very thoughts. It ultimately demands perfection-- which He demonstrated.

As we accept and live the principles and ordinances of the gospel we will eventually understand who Christ is and what He has done for us. And in so doing we will come to know Him and want to stay with Him. We will partake of His greatest gift.

 

I hope thanksgiving was a delight. Sounds like it was. It was for me. I ate as much as I could. We also got to take half a Turkey home. That is always good news.

 

Take care now, love you

The Squad

In answer to a few questions I posed to Michael, here are the answers!

Companions: Elder Smith- A little shorter than me. He is a very good swimmer. He won state in Utah for the butterfly. Fun guy to be around.

Elder Marchant- Basketball player. He is looking to go to BYU-I after the mission. 

Elder Simper- Worked with cars before the mission. Holds the record for pre-mission car wrecks. 

Elder Schwemmer- Had offers for basketball scholarships. One of my favorite people to hang around. 

Elder Johnson- He is very book smart. He is now companions with Elder Smith. Elder Smith cut his hair and it doesn't look good, but it was free. 

Elder Merritt- Very intelligent. Learns things on his own. Went to a charter school growing up. 

Elder Pettyjohn- Was on a mini-mission. He decided to stay! He has azbergers.

And that's the team. I don't have pictures of all of them. I've been out eight months and have had 7 companions.Tri-panionships are the best!

I talked with Josh Guthrie at church yesterday. He is going to attend BYU-I in the winter and he informed me he wants to serve a mission. How cool is that? He ended up telling his mom because he felt like it was the right time. She took it well. He isn't sure how to tell his dad.

I love you Rachel, you're my favorite. Don't tell the others.

Diamond came to church yesterday. We had him sit in the third row from the front. I don't think he felt too comfortable doing that but I think the overall experience was good.

I sat in the car wondering where we were going to go for the next hour. Elder Merritt decided to pray. Immediately after the he asked what to do, during the prayer, the phone vibrated informing us of an incoming text. Sure enough it was an investigator communicating that he was expecting us in 5 minutes. I love the tender mercies.

One thing I have learned on the mission is to never judge missionaries. You never know what is going on in their lives.

I'm glad to hear Sheila is happy. Thank you for taking care of her. Thank you for scooping the poop.

Love you all

Mindset of Success

Treat a man like he is nothing and he will amount to little. Treat him like he is a Son of God and he will rise to the occasion. President Ashton treats us like the best missionaries in the world. I really appreciate him for that.

 

We are opening our church building starting Saturday. It will be open for a few hours a day to get things started. We will increase the hours as we get closer to the new year. By January first we will have a full schedule lined up where members can easily invite friends to activities throughout the day from Bible Studies to Mormon messages to church tours. As we incorporate Facebook into missionary work it will be easy to invite others to activities as well.

 

Life is dull if you don't believe. It means going day to day in a nonchalant era of apathy. It stifles missionary work. You must obtain a vision of a glorious future. Jesus Christ was once called An High Priest of Good Things to Come. He constantly had His eye on God's promises despite the wreckage of scattered Israel around Him. He expects us to believe. Believing and hoping in a bright future is how we can have an eye single to God's glory. He will heal you're mind and allow you to do so if you let Him.

 

I love you Mom

Just a peek

It is amazing how wonderful a grandson can be! He charms everyone around him with his beautiful smile.  I noted that he is spoiling his parents as they are going to expect all their future children to sleep through the night and not be fussy babies while awake.  Ahh, they can just enjoy it while this sweet period lasts!

Note: he grew right out of his hair.  It looks like it will be a soft brown. What a joy Jayson Ammon Adams is to all his family!

On their way - country dancing

"I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday..........."

Relaxing on a holiday watching video

I recommend a vacation with Nate, Kelsi and Jayson over the Memorial weekend! It was a pleasure to watch these two newlyweds enjoy each other and share their home and baby.  Life is good.

Elder Merritt

We received a new Elder in Mission Bend West! Elder Merritt is awesome. He writes in elf (I'm not kidding). He learned the elf alphabet found at the end of the Lord of The Rings books. He is also learning Chinese-- not sure why but more power to him. He is one of those underestimated geniuses. He helped write a computer program for one of the office staff as well. Apparently they were very impressed.

Life is so great. Sometimes it seems complicated but it really is not. Find people to teach, then teach them. It really comes down to trusting that the spirit will tell you all things that ye should do.

I thoroughly enjoyed the packages sent. The soup was phenomenal. It won the hearts of all that dwell in our apartment.

Elder Pettyjohn is nearing the end of his mini-mission. He will decide what path he will take. His life will change starting today. Elder Nilson lived in his home ward back in Las Vegas. He is taking Elder Pettyjohn golfing today then Elder Pettyjohn will talk to his mother for four hours. It's too bad we couldn't take him golfing. I would teach him a thing or two about the hole-in-one.

The realization sunk in the other day. This mission is not about me. That knowledge relieves a lot of stress.

Last Friday I attended a meeting with the zone leaders. There was a projector put up with graphs of our "key-indicators"-- some of which were disturbingly low. As it came closer and closer for our time to present I was wondering what in the world we were going to say. Explaining graphs is not something I am particularly passionate about. Elder Carter and I stood up and explained the numbers. I could tell Elder Carter was really nervous. The whole time I was thinking about generic answers that could apply to all aspects of missionary work. Good times. President Ashton was a successful businessman in his former life and it shows!

Elder Merritt taught himself to play the piano so we are looking forward to a couple hours of playing the piano at the church today.

 

I love you, thank you for your prayers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6RGkQFfCM

November 4, 2013

Diamond moved from Liberia about a month ago. He is slightly shorter than me and extraordinarily strong. He grew up playing soccer. He is 31 and has been away from his mother for 13 years. He has the best questions. He likes finding little questions especially with the commandments. For example he asked whether police men should be able to work on the Sabbath.

His sister Clarice is also investigating the church. She hadn't been reading the scriptures so we had a lesson on scripture study. We opened to 2 Timothy 3:15-16 and talked about what it means to feast upon the words of Christ. Afterward we invited her to read the Book of Mormon every day and she accepted. Sometimes it is good to address the situation directly.

People like boldness. They do not like you to waste their time. They want you to say something meaningful and important.

I remember one p-day (the p-day of all p-days) with Elder Marchant where we played basketball at the local rec center. Of course we gave our utmost effort at not playing competitively or keeping score in any way. Although if we did keep score I am pretty sure it would have been 11 to 10 our lead playing by ones. Who knows though.

Anyway it was one of those days where Elder Marchant and I were on fire! We hit shot after shot and when one of us got cold the other would get on a role. Good times, good times. I am not sure why that needed to be said, but here it is--enjoy!

 

Take care now y'all and I love you